Using the Demand and Supply Planning application
The Demand and Supply Planning application provides a model for demand planning from both the product planner and customer planner perspective.
Planning is done at a higher level than the stock keeping unit (SKU), such as product family, class, or subclass. However, the application can be customized to plan at the SKU level if desired. Demand planning is performed at a weekly level, and actual, budget, and forecast versions of the plan are provided.
Allocation to the SKU level is done using actual historical data. This data in turn is linked to product inventory and supplier demand. New product introductions are also accommodated in the application.
An overview of the Demand and Supply Chain Planning application is shown here.
The Demand and Supply Planning application includes these modules:
- New Products
-
New products can be added to the model through the New Products module. This provides an interface to add a new product to the model as well as any related cannibalization impact. You can also use this module to examine the impact of shifting the timing of new product introductions (+/- 26 weeks).
- Customer Demand Planning
-
The Customer Demand Planning module lets you plan at the customer and product level. Customer volume can be entered at the field level by customer sales managers, with management adjustments. The use of seasonality profiles is also available based on product class.
For example, contributors can forecast customer demand, but this can be adjusted up or down by sales management. Seasonality uses profiles by product class applied against historical averages to create a forecast. Built-in Planning Analytics forecasting capabilities are available as well. Customer price per unit can be changed if customer planners think there is a more realistic price for a customer. However, the cost per unit is always set by the product planners.
- Product Demand Planning
-
The Product Demand Planning module is structured for product managers to forecast demand at the total product planning level using the statistical forecasting capabilities of Planning Analytics Workspace. Other versions of demand plans from customers or finance are also brought into this module to provide a comparison of the different demand plans, so that a consensus forecast can be developed. An override-adjustment element is used to select a consensus forecast that is different than the default statistical demand plan forecast. Product planners can modify the price and cost of each product in this module as well.
A variance analysis is also provided so product planners can see the impact of changes in forecasted volume, price, cost, and mix compared to actual and budget.
- Product Allocation
-
The Product Allocation module allocates the consensus forecast at the product family or class down to the SKU level. A historical thirteen-week average is used to allocate volume down to the SKU level. This percentage allocation can be adjusted or overridden to reflect future business demand changes in the template. If an item is comprised of parts or kits, that demand can also be forecasted based on demand.
- Inventory
-
Allocated product demand is linked to the Inventory plan as consensus forecast demand. The Planned Purchase Orders element is used to forecast the required purchases from suppliers to maintain a proper inventory level by product, based on required service level. Once purchasing needs are determined, they can be allocated to one or more suppliers. This in turn calculates the supplier demand that can be fed into a product purchasing system.
- Administration
-
Use the Administration module to change the default periods, update data, map product names, and copy current forecast to archive versions. The application loads data from .csv files, but data loads can be customized to load from ERP systems or data warehouses.